Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich of Russia

Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich of Russia (7 October 1869-18 July 1918) was a member of the Russian House of Romanov and a general of the Russian Empire during World War I. He was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

Biography
Sergei Mikhailovich was born on 7 October 1869 in Borjomi, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire, the son of Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia and Cecile of Baden. He was raised in the Caucasus, and his family moved to St. Petersburg in 1881. Sergei was close friends with his cousin, the future Nicholas II of Russia, and Sergei had a relationship with Nicholas' mistress, the ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska, in a strange menage a trois relationship.

Sergei would later pursue a military career in the Imperial Russian Army, becoming General Inspector of the Artillery and serving as chief of the artillery department during World War I. He later became Field Inspector General of Artillery at the Stavka high command, but he privately had no hope of winning the war. In March 1918, he was arrested by the Bolshevik Cheka police and taken to Alapayevsk with other members of the imperial family. On 18 July 1918, the prisoners were sent to be thrown into a mine shaft, but Sergei jumped at the Bolsheviks, who gunned him down. Sergei was the only man killed outright, and the others were thrown into the shaft and killed with grenades and fire, or they died of starvation.